This was Murray's first clay court win over Rafa. He won his 10th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophy, received 1000 ATP Rankings points and $799,450 in prize money.

Nadal will drop to World No. 7 in the ATP Rankings, putting him outside the Top 5 for the first time in a decade.

Murray got early breaks in both sets and Nadal failed to replicate the forehand brilliance that saw him dismiss Tomas Berdych in the semi-finals as the Scott surged to victory in 89 minutes.

"I think I wasn't expecting this a couple of weeks ago, so when things are unexpected, it feels nicer," admitted Murray. "I didn't feel like I put too much pressure on myself the past couple of weeks, which is a good thing.

"Obviously to win a Masters 1000 on clay for me is a step in the right direction. It's something I had never done before. So that's good progress there. To win against Rafa on clay in a final in Spain is an extremely difficult thing to do, and I'm proud that I've managed to do that."

"I've played a couple good matches [this week], especially yesterday's match," said Nadal. "It's one of the best matches I have played in a long time. So I cannot leave Madrid not happy. I have leave happy and just delete what happened today. I will just stay with the good things that happened this week, and there are a lot of them, more good than bad. I will try to recover in Rome the feelings. I think I've made a step forward and I'm playing better. My game is better."

"For the past couple of days I have been playing better and better every day," said Nadal. "That's always very good news. I am in the final. I am happy for that. I am enjoying a lot the fact that I am playing in front of an unbelievable crowd. For me, that's the best crowd in the world without any doubt. So that gives me a lot of really positive energy.

"Today I played again at a very good level. I did yesterday; today I played at a very, very high level. Let's see tomorrow if I am able to continue with that positive feeling. This week has been fantastic for me. This is a very important result, and that's confidence, that's positive energy. That's calm, too. Let's try to continue tomorrow and try to continue with that good feeling next week. I worked a lot to have that feeling, and today I had that feeling that I've been trying to find for a while."

Rafael Nadal scored a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Grigor Dimitrov in one hour and 49 minutes to advance to the semifinals of the 2015 Mutua Madrid Open.

Dimitrov came under pressure right from the start, including a 14-point opening game. Despite breaking to Nadal to love in the fourth game, the Bulgarian dropped to 2-4. Nadal's service rhythm returned and, with his trusted old racquet frame, found his groundstroke in long rallies to leave Dimitrov few opportunities to make inroads. At 3-5, Dimitrov saved two set points from 15/40, but struck a forehand into the net on Nadal's third opportunity to end the 50-minute set.

Dimitrov played closer to the baseline in the second set, narrowing down Nadal's angles. He broke and then withstood one break point in a 12-point fourth game for a 3-1 lead. But Nadal took advantage of mid-court balls, taking his chances to get back on level terms. He went on to save one break point at 4-4, 30/40, then converted his second match point chance in the next game when Dimitrov mis-timed a forehand wide.

Nadal will next play sixth seed Tomas Berdych or No. 16 seed John Isner on Saturday.

Bellucci is playing his fifth match in five days. After his defeat in quarter finals in Istanbul against Cuevas, he travelled immediately to play the qualification in Madrid. Once here, he eased past Berrer but yesterday he eventually won a long match (more than 2 hours) against Delbonis in the final tiebreak. Conditions are not the best to face a first round of a Masters against a tough rival.

It is true that Chardy is not playing his best tennis lately but his style makes of him a dangerous opponent. He usually managed to overcome first round here and he was always beaten by high ranked players. Although the brazilian´s adaptation to the venue is in his favour, Bellucci should struggle in an eventual long match. The french could be considered as favorite even without all the circumstances around Bellucci. Thus in the current situation we can find the value on the french side.

During the 2014 Mutua Madrid Open Rafa Nadal and Iker Casillas were part of the Charity Day were they raised money for their Foundations... Andy Murray and Serena Williams were there to help too... Let's remember some pics of the event...

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Rafael Nadal wins Madrid Masters
Rafael Nadal won his fourth title at the Madrid Masters, 2-6, 6-4, 3-0 when Kei Nishikori retired with a lower back injury.
The Japanese player won the first set and had the top seed in trouble after breaking to start the second set before the lower back problems which have bothered him all week began to kick in late in the second set.
Nadal held on to win his first title of the spring season over Nishikori, the champion last month at Barcelona.

Roger Federer met Will Smith during the trophy ceremony at the 2012 Madrid Open... The former world number 1 received a black suit from Smith's last movie 'Men in Black 3' after he won the final match against Tomas Berdych ...

Smith was there watching the final match with his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.